Big sick day for AC Transit

AC Transit bus service may be nominally running as usual this week, but commuters might want to check in with the agency before heading out to catch their buses. AC Transit spokesman Clarence Johnson told me that an “unusual” number of drivers have called in sick since their new contract went into effect yesterday. He didn’t have numbers when I talked to him but said service was definitely affected.

The beleaguered bus agency has been struggling with the operators’ union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 192, over the terms of a new contract intended to save nearly $16 million. When I called her today, chief union negotiator Claudia Hudson told me that union members had agreed over the weekend that they would continue to work. But, she said, not everyone felt comfortable with their new driving assignments.

“Some people have phobias of the bridge,” she said. “Some operators won’t drive the 72 because it goes through some rowdy neighborhoods.”

“My word to them is ‘come to work,’” she continued. “But I don’t have authority to tell them that hey, even though you haven’t driven the Bay Bridge in 20 years, you need to take 50 or 60 people across and see how you do when you get on the bridge.”